Hang by a thread
Idiom
If a serious situation hangs by a thread, it means that even a slight change can decide what will happen and that a bad result such as death, failure, etc. is likely.
The mayor’s political future has been hanging by a thread since the fraud scandal.
Cambridge Dictionary
In the context of conveying the fragility and precariousness of life, the three expressions are essentially the same:
“Life hangs by the thread”
“Life hangs by the slender thread”
“Life hangs by the silken thread”
These phrases all convey the idea that life is delicate and could easily be disrupted or lost. The use of “slender” and “silken” in the latter two expressions adds a poetic or metaphorical touch, emphasizing the thin and fragile nature of the thread on which life is imagined to hang. The variations in the adjectives don’t change the core meaning; they just add nuances to the imagery.
“On the line” and “Hangs by a thread”
While both expressions convey a sense of precariousness or vulnerability, they are not exactly the same.
“Hangs by a thread” typically implies extreme fragility, as if something is barely holding on and could easily break or be lost. This phrase often conveys a sense of imminent danger or a delicate situation.
“On the line” generally suggests that something is at risk or in a critical state, but it doesn’t necessarily imply the same level of extreme fragility as “hangs by a thread.” It can refer to being in a situation where the outcome is uncertain, and there might be consequences or risks involved.
In summary, both expressions convey a sense of risk or vulnerability, but “hangs by a thread” specifically emphasizes a very fragile and precarious state, while “on the line” is a more general expression for being in a critical or risky situation.
On the line
PHRASE
If something such as your job, career, or reputation is on the line, you may lose or harm it as a result of what you are doing or of the situation you are in.
[informal]
He wouldn’t put his career on the line to help a friend.
Synonyms: at risk, in danger, in an endangered position, in jeopardy More Synonyms of on the line
Collins Dictionary
Be on the line
idiom
To be at risk
Almost 3,000 jobs have been lost recently, and a further 3,000
are on the line.
Cambridge Dictionary
1 Syrian Refugee Convited Of Raping 13-Year-Old Girl Featured In BBC Documentary
10 mrt 2024 LONDON
A Syrian, Omar Badreddin who received positive attention on the BBC’s Newsnight, has now been found guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl. Along with his brother Mohamed and two others, Omar was sentenced to a total of 38.5 years in prison for their crimes.
The victim endured a terrifying ordeal, describing her attackers as having “tortured” her and assaulting her on multiple occasions, threatening her life or even taking her to another country if she didn’t comply.
The Badreddin family had previously been featured in a 2016 documentary called “To Hell and Back: The Story of a Syrian Family Given Refuge in the UK.” The documentary followed their journey from Syria to Newcastle as part of the Syrian refugee resettlement program.
Interestingly, during the documentary’s production, the BBC learned about criminal charges against Omar. He was accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. However, due to translation errors during police questioning, the case was eventually dismissed after a two-week trial. Omar and the other accused individuals were unable to communicate effectively in English
Peter Cardwell speaks with former BBC executive Professor Tim Luckhurt.
2 ‘It Will End In Prison Sentences’ For People Involved In Post Office Scandal, Says Lord Arbuthnot
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A law aimed at quashing the wrongful convictions of subpostmasters caught up in the Horizon IT scandal is being introduced by the Government on Wednesday.
The proposed Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill “marks an important step forward in finally clearing” the names of hundreds of wronged branch managers who have had their lives “callously torn apart”, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said.
The legislation will exonerate those convicted in England and Wales on the basis of the faulty Horizon accounting software in what has been branded the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history.
TalkTV’s Jeremy Kyle and Nicola Thorp discuss the story with Tory peer and Post Office scandal campaigner Lord James Arbuthnot.
Educational
3 ‘It destroyed him’: Horizon scandal victims who never saw justice before death | ITV News
12 mrt 2024
The terrible miscarriage of justice at the heart of the Post Office scandal is only some of the way to being put right.
Hundreds of people are still waiting for their criminal convictions to be overturned, many more are yet to receive compensation for the livelihoods they lost.
But there are some victims of the scandal who will never know the relief of having their name cleared, the stigma officially washed away. They are the people who died before justice was done.
